Friday morning the fun began. I got the kids off to school and then the clock chimed "1987" and Mardi and I were on the road!! We laughed and talked and laughed and laughed the entire way to Seattle!
Well, there was a stop in Ellensburg - and of course it was windy!
We checked in to the hotel and promptly took our picture in the elevator! (When you don't get out and do things like this often, you try to document every moment! Ü )
We quickly dumped our bags and walked down to the Pike Place Market and Water Front area. I had hoped to catch a picture of them throwing fish, but it smelled so awful there and they were taking so long I finally just walked away! Imagine fish being flung back and forth!
We vowed to perfect the cell-phone-self-portrait on this trip!
What do you do when you're walking along and come across a 6-foot penguin?
You take your picture with him!
Ditto when seeing giant iron men with swords!
You can't go to the Pier without stopping that Ye Old Curiosity Shoppe and visiting Sylvia! (She's the one on the left!)
We decided it would be fun to buy matching souvenirs to remember our trip with. We quickly realized that two adult women can not sit in a public restaurant and take pictures of their hands/rings together without raising eyebrows at the tables around them! We quickly deleted the other hand/ring poses and went with the wonder-twin-power pose!
That evening the conference was amazing! 2,500 women in attendance!
Michael McLean performed.
John Bytheway was there.
After the talks/performances, the audience could go to the stage and meet the "stars" - not something Mardi or I were interested in doing, but as we walked by I did get this picture - I can say I stood by the lady who stood by a lady who stood by John Bytheway!
This is our usher, James. He was from Africa and we got to help him meet one of the speakers, Mariama Kallon, who was also from Africa. That was very fun for us to be a part of.
When we left the center that night we very confidently jumped on to... the wrong city bus...we had asked the hotel receptionist person which bus to take to get back and she said "The 124." Well, FYI, there is apparently a 124 North and a 124 South. 124 N takes you about 5 steps from our hotel. The 124 S takes you to the ghetto, dog town, the dark side of Safeco Field, about 5 steps from purgatory!!! Inches from the freeway headed toward the reservation and a place called Tukwila! That's the one we got on!
After noticing we were getting further and further from our hotel Mardi asked the driver when we were heading back - he said, "This bus doesn't go there, get off." Uh - ghetto - 11:30pm - pouring rain - we were the only 2 sober people in a 12 mile radius (and that includes the bus driver). Long story short - we got our transfer tickets, stood in the rain, talked to a wine-o, got on the right bus, had a wine-o on the bus tell us that "Girls like you shouldn't ride the bus at night." Yeah...no kidding! And low and behold, the 124 N got us 5 steps from our hotel - which only took us abt 2 steps at the clip we were running! (Picture of us after we were kicked off the 124 South.)
We had a lot..LOT...of nervous energy when we got to our hotel. We ordered pizza at midnight - (woke up with heartburn at 4:30am). We laughed some more. We mocked our "Room with a view." Yes, we could see the Space Needle, but we hardly considered it a "view" when we had to plaster our faces to the window to see it!
The weekend was amazing! Didn't take many pictures Saturday. We did meet up with Aunt Lori Saturday and had lunch (huge Nachos to keep the midnight pizza company)! Next year TOFW is in Spokane. I'm already looking forward to it! I know I didn't share much - anything - about the topics the speakers talked on, or say anything about the incredible music. It was all just one big journal-worthy event. When I die, buy the book! ;)
12 comments:
I am so glad that you got to go to this Shiela! The older my children (and I!) get, the more I think mom's need a chance like this to recharge and reconnect with other women. It's so easy to get wrapped up everything involved in being "mom/wife/teacher/worker" etc, that we forget to just be US! Good for you for taking the time! Sounds like you had a great time (and I'm jealous....well, except for the bus ride, and I even LIKE Safeco field) ,
Good for you! I think it's important for moms, ESPECIALLY stay at home moms, to get out and do something fun without a spouse or kids. I am really bad about this so one of my goals this year is to improve that. You've inspired me!
What fun! To get away and recharge your batteries!
I'm glad you took the time to do this!
Shiela, what a great story! You'll remember that for a long time! Definitely worth taking a little time out for to get to hang out with your cousin and get out and recharge your batteries! I don't think in all the years I've known you that you have ever just gone off and done something! So glad you guys had a great time!
How fun! It looks like you guys had a GREAT time together! It's awesome that you got to have a little getaway and some girl time. I'm so glad you enjoyed it!!
How often do you get to do something for yourself? yeah, that's what I thought! I'm so glad you were able to go do this. You enjoyed a great friendship, had your spirit renewed and an adventure. What a great time. When I went on my Walk to Emmaus last year, it was one of the best things I could have done.
This is torture... TORTUUUUUURE. They had TOFW in San Antonio this past weekend, too, and I wanted to go SOOOOOO bad. I was all gung-ho about it, and planning to get a group together, and take Laura along because they were also having "Time out for girls" in conjunction with it.... And then found out that the Stake Auxiliary Training was that day, and my Stk RS Pres would pretty much kill me for skipping it to attend TOFW. *sob*sob*sob*
I attended in Omaha a few years ago, and absolutely loved it. (my mom, sis and SIL were there with me. YAY!!) We got to meet Kenneth Cope. :)
I wish I could do this more. Its so important for both husband and wives to have a boys weekend or girls weekend.
That sounds like a wonderful weekend away! I'm glad that you took some time for yourself - it's so easy to convince ourselves we don't need it, but we do!
Thanks for sharing with us!
Jenny
Looks like you certainly had fun! Glad you got to go!!
Ali
I had such a wonderful time and was so glad when you said you would go. I am happy that I can add TOFW to my list of things that I have been able to share with you, my cousin, my best friend! Now that we are experienced bus riders we will definitely take a taxi next time.....I LOVE YOU!
Mardi shared your blog with me and I have to say that I am totally jealous of the friendship and love you have for your cousin. I know you had a great time. Wish I was there with you. It just seamed like you had so much fun!! Glad to see you there and have lunch with you too, so I at least got to have fun with you then.
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